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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama vowed yesterday that the United States would not be “dragged back” into military action in Iraq as long as leaders in Baghdad refuse to reform a political system that has left the county vulnerable to a fast-moving Islamic insurgency.

But the prospect of sectarian compromise seemed to move further out of reach yesterday. Iraq’s top Shiite cleric exhorted all able-bodied Iraqis to take up arms to combat the Sunni militants. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has seized broad stretches of the country this week and threatens the wobbly Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

Thousands of Shiites flooded into Baghdad, Najaf and Karbala for weapons, organization and instructions in response to the call by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who is the highest religious authority for Shiites in Iraq.

“We heard al-Sistani’s call for jihad, so we’re coming here to fight the terrorism everywhere, not just in Iraq,” said Ali Mohsin Alwan al-Amiri, one of the volunteers who started coming to Baghdad’s southern gate within an hour of al-Sistani’s call.

The chaos risks re-entangling the U.S. military in Iraq. Obama, in a televised statement, said it was clear that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government needed more help and that the United States was weighing a range of options. But Obama said he would not be sending troops back and U.S. military aid alone was not a solution.

“The United States is not simply going to involve itself in a military action in the absence of a political plan by the Iraqis that gives us some assurance that they’re prepared to work together,” he said. “We’re not going to allow ourselves to be dragged back into a situation in which, while we’re there, we’re keeping a lid on things.”

Obama said he was considering a range of options drawn up by the Pentagon. Administration officials said those include strikes using drones or manned aircraft, as well as boosts in surveillance and intelligence-gathering.

The United States has the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush and an accompanying Navy cruiser in the northern Arabian Sea, while two destroyers from the Bush strike group are in the Persian Gulf. The ships carry Tomahawk missiles, which could reach Iraq, and the Bush has fighter jets that could also easily get to Iraq.

U.S. intelligence agencies say Baghdad is unlikely to fall. Iraq’s Shiite soldiers, who deserted en masse because they were unwilling to fight and die for Sunni towns such as Tikrit, are much more likely to fight for Baghdad and its Shiite-dominated national government. The agencies also say the army units around Baghdad are marginally better.

Officials said they estimate there are several thousand insurgents but well short of 10,000.

Islamic State quickly overran Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul, Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit and smaller communities this week, as well as military and police bases — often meeting little resistance.

While some in Sunni-dominated Mosul said they were glad to be rid of the humiliations meted out by troops from al-Maliki’s Shiite-led government, strictures quickly emerged.

Islamic State issued rules banning smoking and drinking. Prayer times must be respected and women are to stay inside. Rule-breakers face execution.

United Nations human-rights chief Navi Pillay said her office has received reports of summary executions and kidnappings of civilians and those believed to have worked with Iraqi security forces and the police. While “the full extent of civilian casualties” is not yet known, initial reports suggest hundreds were killed and as many as 1,000 wounded in recent days, Pillay said in an emailed statement.

Islamic State fighters made fresh gains yesterday, driving government forces at least temporarily from two towns in an ethnically mixed province northeast of Baghdad.

Residents in Jalula, 80 miles northeast of Baghdad, and Sadiyah, 60 miles north of the capital, said Iraqi soldiers abandoned their posts when the fighters showed up.

The gunmen later disappeared from Jalula and were replaced with Kurdish security forces known as peshmerga.

Information from the Associated Press, The New York Times, Bloomberg News and Reuters was used in this story.